It was not enough for Joseph Beuys to wade through the murky swamps of Zuiderzee in 1971. In what became known as his “bog actions,” he would submerge his entire body beneath the festering waters. Only by sinking below the surface, to both physical and psychological depths, could Beuys reemerge from the fertile marshes transformed. Back from my own art history pilgrimage, that took me to the University Art Association of Canada’s conference in Montreal, with a stack of freshly graded essays from my Art Criticism class, Beuys’s shaman-like ritual has acted as a sort-of “spirit guide,” teaching me about art and its criticism.
In the same way that Beuys sinks into the mysterious swamp, art criticism should aim to tread below the surface of the art world. As close and deep as Beuys, the critic should spend time, linger, immersed and, finally, transformed. Beuys’s Bog Action reminds us that there is a spiritual life behind images that can be accessed through ritual.
From the bottom of the swamp I turn and look up. From the ground to the distant sky, continually refocusing my eyes, negotiating my way through these vast ranges and pictures—lots of pictures! It is here that criticism can explore human-spiritual relationships, and how these relationships fit into the world of images and, most importantly, what the images want to tell us.
